International Events

Celebration of our Living Culture - ACCU Asia/ Pacific ESD Photo Caravan comes to India
CEE is one of the international hosts of the ACCU Asia Pacific ESD Photo Message Exhibition titled “Letters to Tomorrow: Celebration of Our Living Culture”. As a part of this, CEE held the photo-exhibition in three cities - Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Pune.

CEE Central Photobank

About 800 students visited the ACCU exhibition in Pune. Informal interaction with the students revealed that they not only enjoyed the exhibition but learnt a great deal about the similarities in cultural practices of ‘our neighbouring countries’.

In collaboration with partner agencies CEE organised a series of events to reinforce the importance of “living culture” in shaping our path to sustainable development. The exhibition focused to develop an understanding and respect for different cultures and traditions. It also provided an opportunity for critical reflection and dialogue with practitioners and interaction with community on culture, society and sustainability issues of not only conserving culture as a Heritage form but also about how relevant it is for us to perceive culture (role of human value system) as one of the significant element and mode of achieving goals of Sustainable Development.

The Photo Caravan is a collection of over 80 prize winning photographs from a photo contest organised by the UNESCO Asia Pacific Cultural Centre last year as part of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The photo caravan was exhibited simultaneously in three countries of Asia Pacific i.e. Mongolia, Japan and India. Day long events including interactive cultural exchange
sessions with groups visiting the exhibition at all three venues in India.

For more information on the events in India visit:
www.desd.org

20th Anniversary of Basel Convention
17 November, Basel, Switzerland
The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal celebrates the 20th Anniversary of its adoption on 17th November 2009. The treaty, which regulates the transboundary movements and management of hazardous and other wastes, was adopted in Basel, Switzerland, on 22 March 1989 and came into effect in 1992.

172 countries are signatory to the convention. Achievements of the convention in the past 20 years:

1. By applying the “Prior Informed Consent” procedure the Basel Convention put in place a regulatory framework to control the transboundary movements of hazardous and other wastes. Only shipments between consenting Parties are legal and all shipments made without such
   consent are illegal.
2. The Convention requires its Parties to ensure that hazardous and other wastes are managed and disposed of in an environmentally sound manner, including within their boundaries.
3. In the past twenty years the Convention has seen the emergence of 14 Regional and Coordinating Centres for Training and Technology Transfer, in various parts of the world. The Centres support developing countries and countries with economies in transition in the
   implementation of the Convention.
4. Over the years, the Basel Convention adapted to newly emerging problematic waste streams. In the area of e-waste, it has put in place successful partnerships with the private sector and NGOs.
5. In 2008, the Convention launched the Partnership for Action on Computing Equipment, a multi-stakeholder partnership that provides a forum for to tackle the environmentally sound management, refurbishment, recycling and disposal of used and end-of-life computing equipment.
6. The convention recognises the fact that many countries still lack the capacity to implement the Convention. As a result, illegal traffic in hazardous waste is still a reality.
7. The Convention adopted Bali Declaration on Waste Management for Human Health and Livelihood. The Declaration specifically recognizes the implementation of the Basel Convention as an essential component of attaining the MDGs.

For more infromation visit:
http://www.basel.int/index.html